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Guard for Bush Isn't Allowed Aboard FlightDecember 27, 2001
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 - An Arab-American member of President
Bush's security detail was denied passage on an American
Airlines flight from Baltimore to Dallas Tuesday evening
after the flight's pilot questioned the validity of the
agent's credentials, a spokesman for the Secret Service
said tonight.The agent, who was armed, was originally scheduled to
accompany the president aboard Air Force One to Crawford,
Tex. He was was on a commercial flight because of a change
in Mr. Bush's schedule.After a mechanical problem prompted the agent's original
flight, American Flight 1191, to be canceled, the agent
boarded American Flight 363 shortly before 5 p.m.,
scheduled to depart Baltimore Washington International
Airport at 5:15 p.m.Once seated, he was confronted by airline security
personnel, the Secret Service said, and was asked to exit
the plane and submit to additional security checks.After a delay of an hour and 15 minutes, during which the
agent was questioned by the flight's pilot, airline
officials and airport police, the agent was ordered removed
from the flight even though he had offered to have the
Secret Service confirm his identity.Brian Marr, the Secret Service spokesman, confirmed the
account of the incident this evening but declined further
comment. Phone calls to the airline tonight went
unanswered.A complaint filed today to the Council on Arab-Islamic
Relations, an advocacy group in Washington that tracks
cases of racial profiling, called the incident evidence
that profiling of Arab- and Muslim-Americans at the
nation's airports had increased since Sept. 11."They didn't see an American, they didn't see a law
enforcement professional," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman
for the group. "All they saw was a racial and ethnic
profile that they didn't want on their flight."http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/27/national/27AGEN.html?ex=1010464126&ei=1&en=936b929523c3d756
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